Trust is a Powerful Motivator
by TheLonesomeMonster
Summary: The turtles set out to bring down one of the only remaining Kraang bases after they take back New York. The turtles will learn that when his family is on the line, Mikey will always pull through. April also learns that when it comes to ninja training, you have to be patient with yourself.


The city was illuminated by the thousands of lights that streamed out of windows and buildings, the chilly wind whipping across any passer-by who happened to be out in the dead of night. Four turtles streaked across the tops of the buildings, only a blur to anyone who happened to look up. Before they could fully realise they saw anything; they were gone.

Michelangelo ran at the back of the group, a wide grin plastered over his face as he flipped, jumped and dived over the buildings trying to out-do his brothers, who were also in this almost subconscious competition of agility. This was the norm before most of their missions; Mikey had once heard Leo muttering about team morality being important or something. And so, it was not unusual to hear Mikey's cackling laughter as he passed Raphael, nor was it abnormal to hear Raph's answering growl.

"Get back here Mikey!"

"Not a chance, bro. Gonna have to catch up." Mikey taunted before flipping over to the next building.

One would also not be surprised to find Donatello rifling through the back-pack he held while he ran; doing a final check to make sure they had not forgot anything.

"Don't worry Donnie, we got this. Just an in and out mission." Leo said, throwing a confident smile to the turtle beside him.

"Yeah, I know." Donnie sighed "It's just if we don't plant this explosive, the Kraang could try and plan an invasion again. Honestly, I can't believe some stayed in the city."

"Me either, but April said she could sense them here. Plus, we saved the world; this will be easy." Leo said, coming to a stop as they reached their destination.

"Whoa, the Kraang really had a down-grade." Mikey said as he crouched near his brothers. This building that stood in front of them, while not the looming tower of spikes that was TCRI, was still of a considerable height. It was perfectly average, and if April hadn't happened to be walking past and sensed their occupation, it would probably have gone unnoticed.

"Okay, so how are we getting in Leo?" Raph asked, pulling out his twin sai.

Michelago could see Leo's eyes squinting in thought, assessing the building in front of them.

"They wouldn't have many recourses to be guarding that place right after we too back the city. It looks like there's an open window on the far side, so we can probably get through there without much troub-"

"Guys!" A hushed whisper interrupted Leo, and the four turtles immediately turned and drew their weapons on instinct.

"April?" Donatello said, staring in confusion at the gasping girl in front of them, "Did…did you run here?"

"Yeah," She said, straightening and given them a smile through her harsh breathing, "I wanted to come with you guys."

"I don't know April; this is a stealth mission, and there's bombs involved." Leo said slowly, knowing he was going to face an argument.

"I managed to sneak up on you just then! I'll be fine; I'm almost a Kunoichi."

"Yeah, _almost_." Muttered Raph.

"Bro, she has mind powers! She could, like, sense the Kraang if they're about to find us." Mikey said, smiling widely at the possibility. He didn't mind of she tagged along, she had shown herself to be reliable in other dangerous situations.

Leo seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Mikey, and eventually relented. As they begun circling the building, Mikey instantly took note of how close Donnie stood himself next to April. He chuckled softly to himself; Donnie was as see through as the plastic covers on Leo's comics. They got to the window, Leo hopping through it first. They stood there in silence, waiting for the signal of the all clear. A large green hand appeared in front of the window, waving them in.

They slipped inside, landing softly enough that no noise could hope to echo through the expanse of space around them. Inside of the building metal and stone walls stood tall, the ceiling set high, and when Mikey looked up, he could barely see the criss-cross patterned style of the exposed support beams through the heavy shadows.

On instinct the turtles immediately retracted into the shadows near the walls, waiting a beat for April to follow their lead. Mikey was surprised that there was so little light in this place. In the classic Kraang hide outs, there was always bright lights filling every corner that made it especially irritating for the average Ninja Turtle to travel through.

A little bead of suspicion seemed to blossom in his chest, but he pushed it aside when Leo started to quickly move forward. Their fearless leader had given them the rough outline of the plan before they had left the lair; get to the elevator, into the shaft, and climb their way to the top; where all the Kraang information and tech would likely be. What Mikey didn't understand was why the bad guys always used the top floor, _the most obvious floor_ , for all the important stuff. If it was Mikey, he would use the basement, or even the middle floor, just to throw people off.

His wandering thoughts were interrupted as they entered another room, light suddenly flaring into life and blinding the turtles for half a second. They glanced around frantically, their cover now blown and a rising need to find the enemy before they started shooting. And from the shadows that were previously encompassing the other side of the room, four Biotroid's stepped out. Their gargantuan, blue yeti bodies turned in sync, bent over, their flab over their butts opened.

"Oh shell!" Raph cursed.

Mikey let out a shriek as he leapt out of range, shooting his arms out to grab the nearest person to drag them with him. The surprised yelp told him it April and he made sure to break her fall, before rolling over and covering her body.

The resounding explosion propelled them across the floor, and Mikey cried out as various debris peppered his shell. The whole world was ringing as he stumbled to his feet, his whole body feeling like he had sat in a microwave for a few minutes. The room was way too small for that kind of fire power, and he quickly shook his head to try and remove the surrounding fuzziness. Dust had been thrown into the air, and Mikey squinted through it to feel his heart drop. The exit had been blocked off by chunks of twisted metal and stone.

Turning around he saw April starting to stand, and just a few metres away he could see the silhouette of one of the four Biotroid looking around; the Kraang on its neck also partially blinded by the dust. He caught sight of April about to open her mouth, presumably to call to see if the others were conscious. She obviously hadn't seen the Biotroid that was too close for comfort. He leapt over, covering her mouth with his hand and shook his head at her confused, panicked and irritated expression, throwing a gesture towards the large blue robot that was slowly turning around to face them. A look of understanding crossed her face, and Mikey grinned and gave her a thumbs up with both hands. His optimism seemed to calm her a bit as they dropped back to the relative safety of the wall. He needed to find his brothers before the dust settled and left them exposed again.

Mikey, who had let the white membrane on his eyes protect him from the worst of the dust, was ahead of April as the moved slowly and silently, jumping over debris that had littered itself across the room. Mikey frowned slightly; he had all the faith in the world that his brothers had dodged the butt cannons; they weren't awesome ninjas for nothing. Either way, Mikey would be a lot more comforted when he actually found them. April grabbed onto his arm, and Mikey shot an encouraging smile her way. She was struggling to keep her eyes open against the particles that were invading them.

Then, another figure started to emerge from the cloud of dust around them. Mikey almost let out of whoop of joy when he saw that it was too small to be a Biotroid, but the perfect height to be a mutant turtle. Mikey practically bounced over to Leo, who grabbed his shoulder and glanced at him for a moment to make sure there was no serious damage. It was then when the dust startled to fall, and Leo tried to squint through the rapidly clearing room to find their brothers. The stomping of Biotroid feet was loud and distracting, and Mikey kept looking back in the direction it was coming from.

Just when they had caught sight of Donnie and Raph, who were both standing next to each other shooting cautious glances around them, was when the Biotroid's caught sight of them.

"The exit is totalled, dude." Mikey said to Leo, falling into a fighting stance and grabbing his nunchaku.

"Try and get to the Elevator!" Leo shouted just as the tell-tale sounds of the nipple chainsaws revved into life.

Mikey flipped to the side just as a chainsaw shot towards him, dodging it with barley a second to spare. He could feel his heart beating heavily as the five of them tried to get their way to the elevator which stood in the corner of the room.

"Aw, man! I hate the nipple chainsaws." Mikey yelped as he had to fall into a roll to avoid the next one.

"Just keep going!" Leo said. Mikey threw a glance at him, and found himself give a silent sigh of relief that Leo had taken over the duty to make sure April avoided the chainsaws. It allowed him to focus, something he admittedly wasn't good at _,_ on keeping the nipple chainsaws away from his shell. He let out a whoop of excitement as he pulled off a particularly impressive evade, the chainsaw whipping past his plastron as he leaned back as far as he could go. _He could totally beat all his brothers at limbo_ , Mikey thought smugly, before flipping himself once more out of the way of an attack.

He was the first one to the elevator, and pressed the button for "up" rapidly, as many times as he could before he felt another chainsaw shooting towards him. He dropped to the floor, and the chainsaw flailed uselessly above his head. He pressed the hidden button on his nunchaku, and the hidden blade sprung out. He swiped at the Chainsaw swinging widely on the long metal rope that connected it to the Biotroid's chest. The blade slid into it with a spraying of sparks and the chainsaw dropped to the ground, no longer a threat, and Mikey grinned down at it. The other chainsaw nipple of the pair pressed the advantage of his distraction, and Mikey was barely able to roll out of the way, the spinning blade clipping his shoulder.

"AH!" Mikey yelped, pressing a hand to the wound that was steadily dripping with blood. He winced as he caught sight of the ripped skin; that would scar for a bit.

"Mikey!" Raph's voice caught Mikey's attention, and he quickly searched the room to find him and Donnie struggling to get to him. It was however, Leo and April who got the elevator next.

"Mikey, you okay?" Leo asked, standing in a defensive position with April backed up against the Elevator doors.

"I'm all good." Mikey said, ducking out of the way of another chainsaw.

"Good. Donnie, Raph, get over here!"

"Oh I'm sorry, we'll start trying now. Does it look like we're not trying?!" Donnie shouted in irritation as he knocked a chainsaw off its path with his Bo Staff.

The doors 'pinged' open behind the trio, but they ignored it, ready to force their way back to their brothers.

Donnie paused for a split second to pull the bag from over his shoulders before tossing it in their direction. Mikey caught it easily, the weight in his arms immediately telling him it was the bomb.

"They're more prepared than we thought. Get that to their base and set the timer." Donnie yelled, flipping over two chainsaws just in time.

"We can't leave you!" Leo said angrily, rolling under the chainsaws that had aimed for his throat.

Mikey was just a busy, only stopping his frantic movements to slip the bag over his neck and over his good shoulder.

"Then you better find us after you're finished." Raph grunted as he deflected a chainsaw with his Sai.

"Leo, go! The mission comes first!" Donnie shouted over the loud whirring of chainsaws. "We'll be fine."

"No, I won't-"

"We can handle this!"

"That's not why-"

"We can't let the Kraang invade again!"

"We won't-"

"Trust us, Leo!"

That seemed to make Leo hesitate.

"We're not gonna leave them are we!?" Mikey shrieked, looking over at Leo in horror.

The Kraang in the yeti suits seemed to realise what the turtles had planned, and their attacks increase in intensity. Mikey heard Leo curse as they were forced to move backwards and slowly away from the elevator. If this continued, none of the turtles would be able to make it.

"Mikey, April, get to the elevator!" Leo shouted, instantly throwing himself towards their only escape.

Mikey let out a disbelieving "What?!", but was already moving to the elevator, making sure April stayed ahead of him. No matter how much Mikey disliked Leo's orders, he knew he would always follow; and so did Leo.

He dived into the elevator just as April pounded on the 'up' button, the door closing just as a chainsaw shot through, they leapt back as far as they could go in the small space. Mikey again let his Kusarigama out and cut the chainsaw from the metal tube. It fell to the ground with a thud, and the sudden lack of the loud chirring of chainsaws left them panting into the silence.

"Dude, that was _not_ cool." Mikey said, pressing a hand to his still weeping wound.

"I know," Leo said miserably, "Let me see your arm for a sec."

"But if anyone can get out of that, it's Don and Raph. They're legit the Brain and the Brawn of the team." Mikey said confidently, nudging Leo with his good shoulder as the other turtle crowded around him to check on his wound.

Leo smiled slightly, and Mikey counted that as a win, even if his own worry churned in his gut.

"Are you okay, Mikey?" April asked, muttering slightly, "Thanks for the help, I don't think I could have reacted fast enough that time."

"Like a turtle do." Mikey grinned, before letting out a slight hiss as Leo poked his shoulder. His brother started to unwrap his own wrist bandages before wrapping them around Mikey's shoulder, crossing over his shell and plastron. "Dude, ew, just use my bandages. I don't want your sweaty wrist guards on me."

"Deal with it Mikey." Leo muttered before unwrapping his other wrist. Mikey stood reluctantly as that was wrapped around him as well. He would rather Leo keep his wrist bandages on his wrists; he didn't want Leo using them on him when they should be stopping Leo from hurting a joint. But, he had this argument many times before, and it always turned out the same. So Mikey just waited until Leo was satisfied with his work.

"Okay, now we have to-" Leo paused and froze, and it was then that both April and Mikey noticed it too; the elevator was stopping and they were nowhere near the top.

"Oh no," Leo muttered, turning to stared up at the ceiling of the Elevator. He gestured at Mikey, who immediately understood. He hopped up into Leo's shoulders and slid the emergency panels from the Elevator's roof, pulling himself up quickly and ignoring the pain in his shoulder. Heart beating rapidly from urgency, he reached down and grabbed April's outstretched arm, heaving her up. She awkwardly started climbing through the top of the roof, and Mikey flailed his arms in silent panic at the amount of time it was taking.

Just as she was able to come through, the Elevator stopped and the doors opened, letting the stream of pink laser fire stream into the Elevator. They did not relent, and Leo had to jump to the small safe place in the corner where the doors had opened. His back was pressed into the small place and Mikey had just been ready to leap down when-

" _No_ Mikey! There's too many, go on ahead." Leo shouted over the noise of gun fire.

"But-"

"Just go! I can't get up until they stop firing, and they'll just follow us if they do." Leo said, pulling out his katanas.

"Leo, I can't!"

"I trusted Donnie and Raph to hold their own. I also trust you to finish the mission!" Leo yelled, taking a deep breath to steady himself, before turning and charging the enemy.

Mikey lost sight of Leo immediately from the small square in the roof. He was still poised above it, frozen in shock. Leo trusted him to finish the mission?

"We need to go after him!" April stated firmly, crouching next to Mikey.

 _Leo trusted him to finish the mission._

"You can't just let him go by himself!"

 _Leo trusted him._

"No," A sense of determination settled within him, a feeling he only had rarely. "Leo trusts me to do this. And when we're done kicking Kraang butt we'll come back and kick some more!"

April hesitated, glaring down at the floor in frustration as Mikey stood up, pulling his Tegaki from his belt.

"Dude, do you have one of these?" Mikey asked, holding the climbing claws. She shook her head, still looking towards the ground. Mikey grinned at her and gestured to his shell "All aboard the Mikey express then!"

Her weight settled onto his back and Mikey immediately began to climb. It was a bit tricker with the extra weight hanging off his back, but he adapted quickly and learned the different ways he needed to shift to keep himself close to the wall and on balance. He was sweating by the time they had reached half way to the top. Normally he could make the climb easily, without a human clinging to him. She was almost like a monkey, and Mikey entertained himself with the thought of owning a pet monkey while he climbed.

"It's all my fault." April spat suddenly, catching Mikey off guard and tearing him from his monkey fantasies.

"Dude, what?" Mikey asked, confused.

"I've done nothing here but be a burden the whole mission. You and Leo had to protect me, and now I'm clinging to your back like some kind of kid. I couldn't even sense the Kraang when they were _practically surrounding us."_

"Bro don't blame yourselves for that; the shadows betrayed us man! That's our turf." Mikey said, hoping to cheer her up.

"Yes it is my fault! I thought I was almost a Kunoichi. I _thought_ I could use whatever this weird mind thing I have. I guess I was wrong." She said bitterly.

Mikey paused for a second, thinking about how he would respond.

"I've been training for like, my whole life and I still mess up. It just comes with being alive, dude. We mess up sometimes. Ice-cream kitty was one of my mess ups, and now ice-cream kitty is awesome. We'll find Leo, Raph and Don, and it'll be awesome too."

The conversation ended, and Mikey started to hum the 'mission impossible' theme song to himself and he continued to climb through the elevator shaft. A wide smile split his face when April started to hum quietly too.

Mikey counted the Elevator doors as they passed them. When the Elevator had stop when the three of them were still together, Mikey could vividly remember the glowing '8' that told them their last stop was on that level. Mikey had now counted five more, and he could see the last level above them.

"Dude, we're almost there!" He said happily, April patting his good shoulder in encouragement.

They finally got to the highest door, and, with April still on his back, shimmied over to it. With one arm he reached out and secured himself on a crook in the shaft, his toes shoved into any leverage he could find.

"Alright dude, time to show off your new and improved strength." Mikey used one hand to grab the section of the door furthest from them, while April shifted to reach over his shoulder and grab the other.

"Three, two, one…pull!" They both grunted as they prised the door open, the Elevator doors sliding with a heavy creek. It took some effort, but with a final shove the doors were completely opened. Mikey leapt inside and threw his arms up.

"And they stick the landing!" Mikey cheered, and April hopped off from her perch on his back with a slight, amused grin on her face.

"Alright, let's get to the base and then let's save the others." She muttered quietly, eyes scanning the room they had just arrived in.

"Awesome plan." Mikey said, crouching slightly on instinct to make himself look smaller; the smaller you could make yourself the better you could stay out of sight.

The rooms was lit up, and looked completely Kraangatised. While the rest of the building was pretty averagely human designed, it was obvious that this was the Kraangs area of importance. Again, they retreated to the wall, and crept along it. They were going incredibly too slow for Mikey's liking, but he refused to screw this mission up. And so, Mikey activated his 'ninja-mode'. The whites over his eyes appeared, and he allowed himself to relax slightly. One had to have some semblance of focus to make the white membrane on his eyes constant, and he usually found that when he focused on that, it allowed him to focus on the mission as well. He just had to refuse any distractions.

Which would be easy.

He was sure.

….maybe.

His focus was leaving himself again, and Mikey could have smacked himself. His brothers were _relying_ on him to do this.

The faint buzz of the floating Kraang machines reached Mikey, and he held out an arm to stop April. They froze, and Mikey pulled out his nunchaku. He pointed up to the ceiling, which like the first level of the building was as still obnoxiously high. You could also still see the metal beams that stretched across it. He let the Kusarigama fly upwards, wrapping it around the beams. April grabbed onto him as he climbed at the speed only a ninja could achieve, pulling up the dangling chain as he went.

They settled themselves on the ceiling rafters just as the floating Kraang turned the corner, and he felt excitement well up in his chest. He loved sneak attacks, he also loved giving names to said sneak attacks.

Operation: Coming Rafter You.

Mikey allowed himself to give a small cackle before re-focusing. There were moving in about a group of ten, possibly sticking together in case any turtles decide to attack. Mikey grinned at April, who had set her face in a cold determination. They waited until the Kraang were under them, Mikey practically vibrating in anticipation.

"BOOYAKASHA!" Mikey screamed before letting himself drop onto three on the Kraang. April fell next to him, who rolled to break her fall. He saw her pull out her tessen, before he re-directed his attention to the aliens who had started shooting.

It was not hard to dodge the shots, and Mikey let his nunchaku swing rapidly and cracked it on top of the squishy brain-like creatures faces. Between the two of them, it didn't take long to finish off the meagre amount of Kraang. The aliens were either unconscious or running away in the opposite direction, squealing all the way.

"Aw yeah, April and Michelangelo for the win!" Mikey cheered, throwing his arms up.

"We did make a pretty amazing team." April said, grinning at Mikey, "We're not finished yet though."

"You're right." Mikey nodded, and they returned to sneaking their way through the hallways.

They soon stepped into a large room, and the sickly pink in the room towered above them, a huge Kraang designed panel sat in the middle of the room. It was empty, the other Kraang probably occupied with his brothers.

Mikey pushed the though away and jogged up to the panel, pulling the bomb from the bag from his shoulder. Now all he had to do was set the timer and…..set the timer…

Oh no.

"What's wrong?" April asked as Mikey blinked down at the black box in his hand.

Mikey paused before turning to April.

"Well…uh…do you know how to set bombs?" Mikey asked nervously.

April stared at him for a moment before her eyes dropped down to the box. Mikey winced, the panic on her face told him she didn't.

He held it up to his face, trying to see anyway one could set a timer. There were about eleven buttons covering it, but Mikey was a bit too cautious to press them. He still remembered Donnie's words of warning when he had wanted to touch the last bomb.

" _Can I touch that?"_

" _Sure, if you want to blow us and the whole lair to pieces."_

He looked back and forth to the bomb and the panel. Was he supposed to install it? He was good at Kraang tech, not the human tech Donnie was a genius with.

He looked back at the panel and frowned, handing the bomb to April, who held it at arm's length, looking at him like he was crazy.

He _was_ good with Kraang tech. He had a feeling they install a self-destruct option in their bases, he didn't know why they would, but what he did know was that the Kraang was weird; and Mikey was an expert with everything weird.

"Sorry Don, but I'm doing this one 'Mikey style'." He announced, approaching the keyboard and hitting at random,

"What are you doing?!" April said, placing the bomb on the floor.

"Chillax, I'm finding the self-destruct option."

"You…you can do that?" April asked, walking up and leaning over his shoulder to look.

"Yeah, aaaaand I'm done." Mikey said, raising a foot to press the screen as far as he could reach. The black panel pulsed pink for a moment, before flashing repeatedly. "It's gonna go 'ka-boom' in an hour."

He jogged over to the other side of the panel, pressed the places he instinctually knew to, bringing up three screens, all showing his brothers trapped in separate rooms. Raph was banging on the door, Leo was sitting in the middle of it with his eyes surveying the room for any weak points, and Donnie was messing with something off screen.

Mikey let out a sigh of relief that they seemed to be okay, despite a few bruises.

"Can you tell what floors they're on?" April said, squinting at the screens.

"Sure dude, their all on the floor four floors below us." Mikey said, turning back towards the Elevator shaft.

"You mean they're on the 11th floor?" Asked April, quickly doing the math in her head as she followed him.

"Yeah; that too!"

They climbed back down to the 11th floor, once again prying the doors open. Knowing that there were going to be guards here, Mikey swung them back up the metal beams in the roof. April kept a hand on the back of Mikey's shell to help her keep her balance as she tried to match the speed Mikey had set. Soon, they had reached the closets occupied cell, which happened to be holding Raph. There were two Kraang-bots stationed outside the doors, and Mikey drew his Kusarigama and aimed.

Before the bots had realised something swinging at them, Mikey had cut the bots clean in half as he let his weapon fly. The aliens dropped to the floor with a squeal, before scuttling off.

April stayed in the ceiling as Mikey dropped down into the now empty corridor. He tiptoed his way to the door.

"Raph?" Mikey said, trying to keep his voice low.

"Mikey?!" Raph's head popped up to look through the small glass sheet that was set high in the door, relief painted over his face. "I've never been happier to see that ugly mug of yours."

Mikey grinned widely, glad that Raph was alright enough to still throw snarky comments.

"You're cutting deep bro." Mikey said in mock hurt before turning his attention to the lock that kept Raph trapped. He was slightly dismayed to see that it was normal earth technology, and not of Kraang origins. It was just an average four digit electronic lock.

He put a finger under his chin in thought; Donnie had once told him that digital locks could be cracked into easily, something about how worn down each number was. Also something about the first and last number too,

He leaned closer, nose almost touching the buttons as he studied them. Four of the numbers were scratched, with the paint on the numbers fading. Two were more worn then the others, and Mikey threw caution to the wind and relied on what his memory was telling him.

He punched in the numbers, 1. 8. 5. 6. Mikey paused while the small light above the pad turned red. He stuck his tongue out before trying again; 1. 5. 8. 6.

The light suddenly went green and the cell next to him opened with a hissing sound, and before he knew it he knew what was happening, Raph practically pounced on him.

"Are you okay? How's your shoulder?" Raph said gruffly, voice filled with concern.

In all honesty Mikey had pretty much forgotten about it.

"I'm all good, bro. We gotta get out of here quick, or we're gonna go boom too."

" _You_ set the bomb up?" Raph asked, surprised. "Where's Leo?"

"In the last cell, April's up in the roof right now."

"What!? Why-"

He was cut off as April dropped down next to them. Mikey looked at her curiously, opening his mouth to speak before also being cut off by Donnie jogging around the corner at the far end of the hall.

"Donnie?!" Raph and Mikey said together, rushing over to join him.

"Guys?" Donnie asked, grabbing onto their shoulders to assure himself they were fine "What happened, did you and Leo set up the bomb?"

"Leo got caught, he's in the last cell. But I set up the self-destruct, we have, like thirty minutes to get outta here." Mikey said as the group turned to run towards where he knew Leo was, "But how did you escape Don?"

"They tried trapping me with a simple digital lock." Donnie said smugly, "It wasn't hard to hack into it."

"Cool dude! I just randomly pressed buttons until I got Raph out. Used that 'press the buttons that look like they went a round with Tiger Claw' thing."

"Huh, that was actually pretty clever for you."

"Hey!"

"Quite you knuckle-heads!" Raph growled, sending them a glare, "We still need to save Leo."

Mikey admitted that Raph had a point, and tried to keep himself from saying any throwaway comments. He could do that when they were out of the exploding building and having celebratory pizza back in the lair.

They came to a skidding stop to the cell that Mikey knew contained Leo. Donnie immidtaly went to the lock while Raph stuck his head up to look into the small window. Mikey covered them, eyes scanning the halls next to April.

"Leo!" Raph whispered, tapping the glass.

Mikey heard a muffled "Raph?" in response, and all Mikey wanted to do was turn and make sure his brother wasn't hurt, even if Mikey had seen him to be more or less fine on the monitor not long ago.

"We're gonna get you out bro, Donnie's working the lock right now." Just as Raph said that, the door slid open. Leo quickly clapped hands with Raph before turning to Mikey.

"Did you do it?"

"Yup." Mikey grinned; it widened as Leo smiled back.

"Knew you could. Come on guys, we need to get out of here."

They could hear the explosion from four blocks away. They were returning home triumphant, with Donnie constantly hovering over Mikey's shoulder checking for any threat of infection.

"I need to get this cleaned as soon as possible. I think I still have some antiseptic in my Lab, otherwise we need to get our hands on some other medical alcohol, which I'm not too sure _where_ we'll find it. I haven't really had a chance to re-stock aft-"

"Come on D, I'm fine." Mikey groaned, holding his arm in place to stop it moving too much as he hopped over the roofs of New York. Thinking back on it, his tolerance of the wound probably stemmed from the adrenalin. Now that it was going out of his system, he could feel the stinging pain returning.

"What happened after we split up, Mikey?" Leo asked, scaling down the building they were on to get to the manhole below them.

Mikey recalled the whole story with help from April, waving his good arm manically around when he told them of their amazing ninja skills. They had made it back to the Lair as they finished up their story of epic proportions. Donnie looked slightly disappointed that his bomb didn't end up being used.

"No man, it was totally useful! I totally used it to smash a Kraangs head in, saved my shell." Mikey knew that Donnie would have figured out he was lying the moment he opened his mouth, but it got a smile out of him and Mikey counted that as a win.

"I'm sorry I rushed in with you guys." April said regretfully, "I was just really eager to become a full kunoichi, I guess."

"It's no problem April, I was glad you were there to give Mikey some back up." Leo said, patting her shoulder with a smile.

"Yeah," Raph said with a grin, "Just make sure you learn how to dodge missiles so Mikey doesn't have to play prince to your damsel."

That earned Raph a punch to the shoulder from both April and Donnie, and he was still rubbing his shoulders as he sat down of the couch grumbling.

Donnie dragged Mickey off into the lab to unwrap his bandages, Leo trotting behind them. Donnie sat Mikey down, and started to unravel the bloodied bandages.

"Sorry I got blood all over wrist guards, dude." Mikey said, wincing as the last bandage was peeled away from the drying wound.

"Don't be, you would have done the same for me." Leo said, leaning against the wall.

It turned out that Donnie did in fact have some antiseptic left, and Mikey squirmed in his seat and complained loudly as it was put on.

"That hurts Bro." Mikey groaned.

"It'll hurt a lot more later if you don't let me do this." Donnie replied patently, too used to Mikey's whining over this.

Mikey sat miserably, his shoulder feeling like Donnie had sprinkled salt over it. He locked eyes with Leo, who was giving him a weird look.

"You okay bro? You're looking at me weirdly." Mikey said, tilting his head confusion.

"I'm just proud of you." Leo said matter of factly, which left Mikey to stare at him in surprise.

"You're what?"

"I'm proud of you, little brother." He said again, smiling down at Mikey. He ruffled his head before walking out of the Lab to join Raph at the TV.

Mikey didn't notice the blinding smile he had on, nor did he notice Donnie's.

"You know, I think everyone feels the same right now." Donnie said as he brought out the stitching kit. Mikey eyes it wearily for a moment before returning his attention to Donnie, "I think we all underestimate you at times, but you just proved us all wrong. We're all proud."

Mikey didn't stop smiling, even when Donnie started to thread his wound back together.


End file.
